DOCSLIB.ORG

T.H. Breen, "Equality in the British Empire: James Otis's Radical Critique of John Locke," Forthcoming

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
T.H. Breen, Ideology and Nationalism on the Eve of the American Revolution: Revisions Once More in Need of Revising T. H. Breen Inspiration for this essay came from an influential article that Edmund S. Morgan published more than forty years ago. "The American Revolution: Revisions in Need of Revising" might best be classified as a "think piece," reflections on the current state of eighteenth-century Anglo-American historiography.' Morgan's observa- tions-like those advanced here-were meant to have a speculative quality, the goal being to provoke constructive debate about major interpretive issues. In that spirit he readdressed familiar questions and challenged dominant orthodoxies, suggest- ing how people writing about colonial society on the eve of national independence might push the field in productive new directions. In his review of the current literature, Morgan posited, among other things, that colonial American scholars had lost touch with a rapidly changing English histori- ography. Their basic assumptions about the character of the British Empire in the mid-eighteenth century relied on scholarship that had been completed more than a generation earlier. But during the postwar years bold new studies had appeared. According to Morgan, Sir Lewis Namier, then England's most distinguished polit- ical historian, had almost single-handedly transformed the interpretive landscape. Namier's iconoclastic writings depicted an empire governed by narrow-minded, complacent country gentlemen who defined politics almost solely as a scramble for patronage." Morgan noted that if Namier and his followers had correctly described the mentality of the English ruling class, then historians of late colonial America might as well take up more rewarding research topics on this side of the Atlantic T. H. Breen is William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University. An earlier version of this essay was delivered at the Krefeld Historical Symposia in Krefeld, Germany (April 1996). The author wishes to thank three participants in that conference for their thoughtful comments: Hartrnut Lehmann, Hermann Wellenreuther, and James Hutson. The author also received valuable suggestions for revision from James Oakes, Robert Wiebe, Jacob Lassner,]. G. A. Pocock, Lawrence Stone, Jack P. Greene, Jim Smyth, and John Murrin. 1 Edmund S. Morgan, "The American Revolution: Revisions in Need of Revising," Wziliam and Mary Quar- terly, 14 (Jan. 1957), 3-15. 2 Lewis B. Namier, England in the Age 0/ the Amen'can Revolution (london, 1961); Lewis B. Narnier, The Structure a/Politics at the Accession a/George III (london, 1957); LewisB. Namier, Monarchy and the PartySys- tem (Oxford, 1952). The Journal of American History June 1997 13 14 TheJournal of American History June 1997 Ocean. Morgan counseled them to concentrate on the experiences of ordinary Americans, on local politics and colonial institutions, on matters closer to home, instead of reconstructing a political world of scheming courtiers and bureaucrats. Although he praised the work of Charles Mclean Andrews and the members of the "imperial" school, Morgan effectively shifted the focus of research from the metropolitan center to the colonial periphery, from a broad history of the British Empire to the social history of the American provinces.3 Morgan's revisions now stand in need of revising. What happened,"of course, was that over the last four decades historians of eighteenth-century England re- worked the entire field, and the men and women who followed in Namier's wake remapped British politics and culture. It is their work, an impressive list of pub- lications associated with people such as Linda Colley and John Brewer, that invites colonial historians to rethink commonplace assumptions about the imperial con- nection and its impact on early American society.! If Narnier's writings soured American historians on the society that produced George III and Lord Bute, the newer literature has had just the opposite effect. It draws attention back to Great Britain, to a highly commercial, modernizing North Atlantic world, and to a shift- ing relation between an expansive metropolitan state and a loosely integrated group of American colonies. More to the point, this scholarship invites juxtaposi- tion of two separate topics, each of which alone has generated a rich and impressive literature, but that when brought together hold out the promise of a greatly revised interpretation of the coming of the American Revolution. First, the recent work fundamentally recastshow we think about the origins and development of Ameri- can nationalism. And second, it provides new insights into the character of popular political ideology on the eve of independence, suggesting why the natural rights liberalism associated with John Locke had broader emotional appeal during this period than did classical republicanism or civic humanism. Reappraisal of the construction of an American identity within the British Empire depends heavily on the work of recent English historians. As noted earlier, those are the men and women who revised much of Namier's scholarship, and although few of them have expressed keen interest in the colonies, their publications depict 3 One should note as well that Andrews was fully aware of the need to integrate social and cultural history into the larger narratives of British imperial development; see Charles Mclean Andrews, "On the Writing of Colo- nial History," Wtlliam and Mary Quarterly, 1 (Jan. 1944), 27-48. For a valuable discussion of Andrews's contri- bution to the field, see Richard R. Johnson, "Charles Mclean Andrews and the Invention of American Colonial History," ibid., 43 (Oct. 1986), 519-41. 4 Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven, 1992); Linda Colley, "Radical Patriotism in Eighteenth-Century England;' in Patriotism: The Making andUnmaking ofBritisb NationalIdentity, ed. Ralph Samuel (3 vols., London, 1989), I, 169-87; Linda Colley, "Whose Nation? Class and National Consciousness," Past andPresent (Oxford) (no. 113, 1986), 97-117; Linda Colley, "The Apotheosis of George III: Loyalty, Royalty, and the British Nation, 1760-1820," Pastand Present (Oxford) (no. 102, 1984), 94-129. John Brewer, The Sinews 01 Power: war, Money, and the English State, 1688-1783 (New York, 1989); John Brewer, "The Eighteenth-Century British State: Contexts and Issues," in An Imperial State at war: Britain /rom 1689-1815, ed. Lawrence Stone (London, 1994), 52-71. Ideology and Nationalism on the Eve of the Revolution 15 a metropolitan culture and society that is quite unlike the traditional early modern world that American historians have long taken for granted. Until very recently, in fact, it was still possible for someone writing about the American Revolution simply to ignore the English side of the story. After all, as one respected historian announced with assurance, eighteenth-century England remained a "traditional, conventional, and conservative" society in which "a static order stood in the way of change,"! Generalizations of this sort are no longer tenable. An early hint of the changing interpretive climate appeared in a 1984 review of studies of eighteenth-century England in which Lawrence Stone called attention to an "astonishing surge of his- torical research."6 Georgian Britain had suddenly become a hot topic. Even scholars who took the lead in toppling the older historiography seemed amazed by the sheer quantity of exciting new work. In his A Polite and Commercial People (1989), for example, Paul Langford announced that he and others in the field had discovered a "transformation, social, cultural, religious, economic, which occurred between the 1720s and the 1780s [that] was nothing, if not spectacular,"? And a few years later in 1995, Kathleen Wilson declared, "Recent studies of popular politics, class relations, crime and the law have done nothing less than revolutionize the ways in which we view and interpret the expression and exercise of power in eighteenth- century English society'? Some revisionist claims have stood up better than others. However "spectacular" or "revolutionary" the new interpretations may have been, we still regard the eigh- teenth century as the period in which Parliament achieved undisputed constitu- tional sovereignty-the Glorious Revolution really did make a difference-and post- Namierite historians certainly do not seriously contest the ability of a landed oligarchy to maintain political dominance. Nevertheless, the interpretive shift is substantial. Whereas we once concentrated on elite political life, on the activities of unstable factions in court and Parliament, we now read of the development and maturation of an impressive fiscal-military state. No doubt, a good many fox- hunting country gentlemen will survive. The monarch will surely remain a key political figure. But those characters must now share the historical stage with an articulate and powerful middle class. Instead of tracing the genealogies of the mem- bers of parliament, English historians examine topics such as the establishment of ) Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (New York, 1982), 14, 21. Parochial claims continue to appear in the general literature in the face of frequent and persuasive calls for a larger, more comparative North Atlantic perspective. Some of the more cogent appeals are Bernard Bailyn and Philip D. Morgan, eds., Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins ofthe First British Empire (Chapel Hill, 1991); ].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction
    INTRODUCTION ON DECEMBER 7, 1968, Lawrence Henry Gipson celebrated 0his eighty-eighth birthday. An active scholar for the past sixty-five years, Gipson continues to contribute articles and re- views to scholarly journals while completing his life work, The British Einpire before the American Revolution. This historical classic appeared in thirteen volumes published between 1936 and 1967. Two further bibliographical volumes covering printed ma- terials and unpublished manuscripts will appear in 1969 and 1970 bringing to a conclusion a project conceived nearly a half century ago. Certainly these volumes, for which he has received the Loubat Prize, the Bancroft Prize in American History, and the Pulitzer Prize in American History, mark Gipson as one of the master historians of our time. Born in Greeley, Colorado, in 1880, and raised as the son of the local newspaper editor in Caldwell, Idaho; Gipson planned to be a journalist before receiving the opportunity to leave the Uni- versity of Idaho where he had earned an A.B. degree in 1903 and go to Oxford with the first group of Rhodes scholars in 1904. In "Recollections," he relates an early experience at Oxford which determined the future direction of his life. Following the comple- tion of his B.A. degree at Oxford and a brief stint teaching at the College of Idaho, Gipson went to work on the British Empire with Charles McLean Andrews at Yale University from which he received a Ph.D. degree in 1918. Gipson has taught at a number of colleges and universities in- cluding Oxford where he served as Harmsworth Professor in 1951-1952, but most of his years have been spent at Lehigh Uni- versity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
    [Show full text]
  • Curtis Putnam Nettels
    Curtis Putnam Nettels August 25, 1898 — October 19, 1981 Curtis Putnam Nettels, trained at the University of Kansas and the University of Wisconsin, had an active teaching career at the University of Wisconsin and Cornell from 1924 to 1966. From the outset he centered his research and writing in the colonial and early national period and quickly became one of the best and most effective teachers, writers, and critics on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. His move to Cornell pushed its Department of History into the front rank of colonial history. Nettels was born in Topeka, Kansas, from old New England stock, as all three of his names suggest. His father was a court stenographer, local politician, and lover of music, as his son became. With the University of Kansas only twenty miles away, it was natural for him to go there for his undergraduate education and equally natural that he should do his graduate work at Wisconsin, which had a very strong American history section. Under the influence of Frank Hodder at Kansas, who had begun his teaching at Cornell University in 1885, and Frederic L. Paxson, the ‘frontier” historian who succeeded Frederick Jackson Turner when he left Wisconsin for Harvard in 1910, and in an atmosphere permeated by the progressivism of Richard Ely, John R. Commons, and Selig Perlman in eonomics; John M. Gaus in government; E. A. Ross in sociology; and, most of all, the LaFollette family, Nettels emerged as a progressive historian, concerned about the problems modern industrialism had created, the ravages that uncontrolled capitalism had done to soil, forests, and water of the West.
    [Show full text]
  • Lawrence Henry Gipson's Empire: the Critics
    LAWRENCE HENRY GIPSON'S EMPIRE: THE CRITICS ED. BY WILLIAM G. SHADE X N 1936 Charles McLean Andrews, then the foremost of American Colonial historians, wrote after reading the maanu- script of the first three volumes of Lawrence Henry Gipson's, The British Empire before the American Revolution, "I want to say how highly I value the work in question. It is unique in its scope and thoroughness and in more ways than one is a remarkable production. I had the privilege of reading it in manuscript and recognized at the time the breadth, originality and ripeness of the treatment. There is nothing written on the subject that approaches it in comprehensiveness and artistry of execution. To students of the Anglo-colonial relationship it will be indispensable."' This monumental series, now numbering fourteen volumes with yet another planned, was conceived in the 1920's and the first volumes appeared in 1936 when their author was at an age when most men contemplate retirement rather than moving forward on a project of such magnitude. After over thirty years, the text has been completed and it is clear that the series represents not only the mature consideration of a major topic by a master historian, but as Esmond Wright has put it, "the ne plus ultra of the im- perialist view"2 of the origins of the American Revolution. The "imperialist view" of the American Revolution can be traced back to the Tory historians of the eighteenth century, but is gen- erally associated with that generation of historians in the early twentieth century including Herbert L.
    [Show full text]
  • Viola Barnes, the Gender of History and the North Atlantic Mind John G
    Document généré le 29 sept. 2021 05:57 Acadiensis Viola Barnes, the Gender of History and the North Atlantic Mind John G. Reid Volume 33, numéro 1, autumn 2003 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/acad33_1art01 Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) The Department of History at the University of New Brunswick ISSN 0044-5851 (imprimé) 1712-7432 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Reid, J. G. (2003). Viola Barnes, the Gender of History and the North Atlantic Mind. Acadiensis, 33(1), 3–20. All rights reserved © Department of History at the University of New Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des Brunswick, 2003 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ 10609-02 Reid 2/6/04 10:33 AM Page 3 JOHN G. REID Viola Barnes, the Gender of History and the North Atlantic Mind VIOLA FLORENCE BARNES VISITED THE Maritime Provinces only once. Retired for 16 years from the History Department of Mount Holyoke College (in South Hadley, Massachusetts), she toured Quebec and the Maritimes in the fall of 1968 with her friend and life partner Mildred Howard.1 Barnes was not unduly impressed by what she saw.
    [Show full text]
  • PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS in LETTERS © by Larry James
    PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS IN LETTERS © by Larry James Gianakos Fiction 1917 no award *1918 Ernest Poole, His Family (Macmillan Co.; 320 pgs.; bound in blue cloth boards, gilt stamped on front cover and spine; full [embracing front panel, spine, and back panel] jacket illustration depicting New York City buildings by E. C.Caswell); published May 16, 1917; $1.50; three copies, two with the stunning dust jacket, now almost exotic in its rarity, with the front flap reading: “Just as THE HARBOR was the story of a constantly changing life out upon the fringe of the city, along its wharves, among its ships, so the story of Roger Gale’s family pictures the growth of a generation out of the embers of the old in the ceaselessly changing heart of New York. How Roger’s three daughters grew into the maturity of their several lives, each one so different, Mr. Poole tells with strong and compelling beauty, touching with deep, whole-hearted conviction some of the most vital problems of our modern way of living!the home, motherhood, children, the school; all of them seen through the realization, which Roger’s dying wife made clear to him, that whatever life may bring, ‘we will live on in our children’s lives.’ The old Gale house down-town is a little fragment of a past generation existing somehow beneath the towering apartments and office-buildings of the altered city. Roger will be remembered when other figures in modern literature have been forgotten, gazing out of his window at the lights of some near-by dwelling lifting high above his home, thinking
    [Show full text]
  • American Historical Association
    -' ~ ~ ANNUAL REPORT • OF THE '. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ,,, . " .. FOR THE YEAR 1907 IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. I <, . WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE .. 1908 ~,! II: m r ~ _ ~~---"' .. " __ ~-~,_#.- .. "'~-.;_....--r""'<-,",~~~ __i<- .•- ~' _____ "'.T";"~J: Ji;,-,._ "' "', LETTER OF SUBMITTAL. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Washington, D.O., September 10, 1908. To the 00ngres8 of the United State8: In accordance with the act of incorporation of the American His­ torical Association, approved January 4, 1889, I have the honor to submit to Congress the annual report of the association for the year 1907. I have the honor to be, Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES D. WALCOTT, Secretary. 3 " '\. , ' .. __~~ _____ ~ .;;:..~-'-_,~_.;.-~~."'--.:.-"- -"'-____-'_~1' --J..,.._~.;.."'_~-~_~,..->_,,_ ~- __H~~·-' .. ~.-' ~ , .... ".'0 ~-"+ l. , ACT OF INCORPORATION. Be it enaoted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Oongl'ess assembled, That Andrew D. White, of Ithaca, in the State of New York; George Bancroft, of ..... Washington, in the District of Columbia; Justin Winsor, of Cam­ . " bridge, in the State of Massachusetts; William F. Poole, of Chicago, .. in the State of Illinois; Herbert B. Adams, of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland; Clarence W. Bowen, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York; their associates and successors, are hereby created, in the Dis­ trict of Columbia, a body corporate and politic by the name of the American Historical Association for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical manuscripts, and for kindred purposes in the interest of American history and, of history in America. Said association is authorized to hold real and personal estate in the District of Columbia so far only as may be necessary to its lawful ends to an amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, to adopt a constitution, and make by-laws not inconsistent with law.
    [Show full text]
  • An Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution Author(S): Marc Egnal and Joseph A
    An Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution Author(s): Marc Egnal and Joseph A. Ernst Reviewed work(s): Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan., 1972), pp. 3-32 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1921325 . Accessed: 19/08/2012 20:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The William and Mary Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org An EconomicInterpretation of the AmericanRevolution Marc Egnal and Joseph A. Ernst* HE Atlantic economyin the half centurybefore American Inde- pendence underwent deep, wrenching changes. As a result, English capital and English decisions increasingly dominated the colonial economy. The freedom of the wealthy colonists, merchants and planters alike, to conduct business as they chose was restricted.Profit margins were lessened and possibilities for local development sacrificed. These broad, structural changes, and the accompanying short-run economic crises, troubled the colonial elite at least as much as did the parliamentary en- actments which followed the Seven Years War.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Mclean Andrews Collection Concerning Colonial History
    Charles McLean Andrews Collection Concerning Colonial History A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 2009 Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact Additional search options available at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms009315 LC Online Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/mm80075765 Prepared by Manuscript Division Staff Collection Summary Title: Charles McLean Andrews Collection Concerning Colonial History Span Dates: 1623-1800 ID No.: MSS75765 Collector: Andrews, Charles McLean, 1863-1943 Extent: 1,200 items ; 3 containers ; 1 linear foot Language: Collection material in English Location: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Summary: Historian, educator, and author. Chiefly transcripts of manuscripts in various repositories in England. The material relates to admiralty courts and cases as well as trade and political matters. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. People Andrews, Charles McLean, 1863-1943. Subjects Admiralty--Great Britain--Colonies. Admiralty--United States. Commercial law--Great Britain--Colonies. Commercial law--United States. Courts--Great Britain--Colonies. Courts--United States. Maritime law--Great Britain--Colonies. Maritime law--United States. Places Great Britain--Colonies--Administration. Great Britain--Commerce--United States. United States--Commerce--Great Britain. United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. United States--Politics and government--To 1775. Occupations Authors. Educators. Historians. Administrative Information Provenance The Charles McLean Andrews Collection Concerning Colonial History was given to the Library of Congress by Evangeline Walker Andrews in 1944.
    [Show full text]
  • J. Franklin Jameson and the Historical Activities of the Federal Government. Alan Harvey Ginsberg Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1973 The iH storian as Lobbyist: J. Franklin Jameson and the Historical Activities of the Federal Government. Alan Harvey Ginsberg Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Ginsberg, Alan Harvey, "The iH storian as Lobbyist: J. Franklin Jameson and the Historical Activities of the Federal Government." (1973). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2393. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2393 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image.
    [Show full text]
  • The American Revolution: a Historiographical Introduction
    The American Revolution: a historiographical introduction he literary monument to the American Revolution is vast. Shelves and now digital stores of scholarly articles, collections of documents, historical monographs and T bibliographies cover all aspects of the Revolution. To these can be added great range of popular titles, guides, documentaries, films and websites. The output shows no signs of slowing. The following guide is by no means exhaustive, but seeks to define some of the contours of this output, charting very roughly the changing ways in which the Revolution has been understood or used by writers from the Revolution to recent times. Needless to say, every generation rewrites the Revolution according to its own concerns, but the questions posed by the Revolution – How is the Revolution to be defined? Did the idea of liberty, the demands of politics, or the realities of economics and society predominate? Is America in some way ‘exceptional’? – continue to be addressed. A short bibliography, including helpful and accessible introductory and historiographical works, follows this short essay. EARLY HISTORIES In 1788, William Gordon, a dissenting minister, published the first proper history of the Revolution, his four-volume, epistolary History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America.1 Gordon noted in the preface to his work that ‘History has been stiled, “The evidence of time - The light of truth - The school of virtue - The depository of events’. For Gordon, like many of his contemporaries, history was an attempt to explain the ‘principles on which states and 1 Alexander Gordon, rev.
    [Show full text]
  • [Title Not Found]
    Curriculum Units by Fellows of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute 1980 Volume cthistory: Changing Connecticut, 1634 - 1980 [title not found] Curriculum Unit 80.ch.06 by Thomas F. Howard Professor Turner wrote only one book and that was not on the frontier, but he made his contribution to this topic in a speech before the World’s Congress of Historians and later published “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” in the American Historical Association’s Annual Report for 1893. Subsequent essays in magazines expanded on his ideas on the frontier and its impact on sectionalism, sectional power, the American character, and American history in general. The single most significant aspect of Turner’s Thesis is the notion of free land, and that fact had enormous repercussions. So long as free lands exist, the opportunity for a competency exists and economic power secures political powers. 2 The presence of vast amounts of land just beyond the settlement was too attractive an inducement to pass up. Europeans came to the east coast of America and from the eastern settlements to land further west seeking economic betterment or a chance for adventure. 3 Other reasons could be cited as well, such as religious freedom and political refuge. Turner saw this westward movement as an ever-recurring process of expansion out from settled areas to the wilderness in search of new opportunities. This process of westward migration became characteristic of Americans, some moving several times in one lifetime. The process would go on until it was stopped by some physical barrier.
    [Show full text]
  • Essayson Ana,,, Hist Jiterature
    Edited by Robert H. Bremner Essays on ana,,, hist Jiterature Ohio State University Press $5.00 Essays o n and n. Jiterature Edited by Robert H. Bremner Emerson, in his essay History (1841), de­ fined literature as "fable," created by the imagination, and history as "experience, in­ terpreted by the reason. At approximately the same time, Macaulay declared that history lay "on the confines of two distinct territories. It is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers, and like other districts similarly situated, it is ill defined, ill cultivated, and ill regulated. Instead of being equally shared between its two rulers, the Reason and the Imagination, it falls alternately under the solid and absolute dominion of each. It is sometimes fiction; it is sometimes theory." In this volume, four of America's leading literary and intellectual historians discuss the relationship of history and literature today. Daniel Aaron, author of Writers on the Left and Men of Good Hope, explores some of the problems of writing contemporary literary his­ tory by recounting his experiences in tracing the development of American literary radical­ ism during the 1920s and 30's while a number of the people involved were still living. Ed­ ward Lurie, author of Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science, also seeks to break the "web of deception" contemporaries spin about their own time; he advances a fresh interpretation of nineteenth-century American scholarship that recognizes the persistent association of (Continued on back flap) Essays on History and Literature Edited by Robert H. Bremner Essays on History and Literature Daniel Aaron Edward Lurie Stow Persons Russel B.
    [Show full text]